Oshkosh Nabs $409 Million Pentagon Order

OSHKOSH, Wisc. (TheStreet) -- The escalating war in Afghanistan has been a boon to truck-maker Oshkosh(OSK Quote).

The company said the Pentagon will purchase another 923 all-terrain vehicles for $408.5 million. The add-on order extends a contract originally awarded to Oshkosh in June. The U.S. military has now ordered a total of 5,219 of the Oshkosh trucks. The company said the deals are worth $2.76 billion.

As its name would indicate, the MRAP (short for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) trucks are specifically designed to withstand the kinds of homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices, used by insurgents to devastating effect in Iraq and Afghanistan. To deal with the latter's mountainous terrain, the Oshkosh version of the MRAP is lighter and has a more heavy-duty suspension system than the MRAPs used in Iraq.

The military has yet to put the first Oshkosh vehicle into action in the Afghan theater. Still, the company said it met the Pentagon's first delivery deadline of Sept. 22, a schedule that has been accelerated as the U.S. pursues its counter-insurgency campaign.

Oshkosh said it will increase production to 1,000 vehicles a month, starting in December and continuing at that level "through at least March." The company added that it has enough manufacturing capacity to handle "any surges in production." Some 6,600 of the machines could eventually be ordered by the military for deployment in Afghanistan, the company has said before.

Early in Monday's session, Oshkosh shares were changing hands at $34.43, up 84 cents, or 2.5%.

-- Written by Scott Eden in New York

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